Ethereum Name Service (ENS), the naming system for Ethereum addresses, lets you use a readable name such as alice.eth in place of a long wallet address. Smart contracts on Ethereum have run it since 2017, recording who owns each name and where it points. Holders of the ENS token vote on how the protocol changes, through the ENS DAO.
Since the ENS DAO switched on ENSv2 in late October 2026, new .eth names come from the ENSv2 registrar, which takes USDC or DAI and refuses ETH. Its discounts grow with the term, so six years of an ordinary name cost $27 at the early-November close, 50 cents less than five years. Shorter terms for an ordinary name cost more than they did under ENSv1.
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How a .eth registration works
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Before the switch (ENSv1)
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After it (ENSv2, early-November close)
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Who sells new names
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The ENSv1 controller
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The ENSv2 registrar
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Paid in
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ETH
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USDC or DAI (ETH, WETH and USDT refused)
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2 years, a name of 5+ characters
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$10, no multi-year discount
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$14.00
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3 years
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$15
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$16.50
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5 years
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$25
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$27.50
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6 years
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$30
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$27.00
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How Does Ethereum Name Service Work?
ENS works through a small set of smart contracts. In the original design, the registry is a single list that records who owns each name and which resolver it uses. A resolver holds the name's records, such as its wallet address and its profile.
Looking a name up takes two steps. An app asks the registry which resolver alice.eth uses, then asks that resolver for the record it wants.
Names also form a tree. Whoever owns alice.eth can create subnames beneath it, such as wallet.alice.eth, and give each one a different owner.
Names ending in .eth come from the .eth registrar, which rents them out by the year at a price set in US dollars. The switch to ENSv2 didn't break the names people already held. According to ENS's documentation for the original registrar, names registered under ENSv1 keep resolving and can still be renewed.
What Is ENS When Sending Crypto?
When you type a name like alice.eth into a wallet that supports ENS, the wallet looks up the name's address record and sends your coins to that address. The blockchain only ever sees the address. The name is a pointer, and its owner can repoint it.
That matters before you hit send. If the owner changes the record, or lets the name lapse and someone else registers it, the same name can route your next payment to a new address. Check the address your wallet resolves before you send a large amount, the same way you'd check a pasted one.
Spelling counts too, since a name one letter off from the one you meant can belong to a stranger.
One name can hold addresses for other networks too, and its owner sets each of them separately. If you're sending on a network other than Ethereum, confirm that your wallet found an address for that network before you approve the transfer.
The lookup itself is free, because the wallet reads the record from the chain before you sign anything.
An address can also carry a primary name, so apps show alice.eth beside the account in place of a long string starting with 0x. The pairing only counts when the name points back at that same address.
Text records can add a picture or a social handle, which is why ENS names often come up as an early working form of decentralized identity.
What Changed When ENSv2 Switched On?
The ENS DAO's proposal "Activate ENSv2" executed on Ethereum in late October 2026. In that same block, the ENSv1 .eth controller lost its permission to register names and the .eth resolver moved to a new ENSv2 contract.
The new registrar takes USDC or DAI, two dollar stablecoins. Its price contract refuses ETH, wrapped ETH and USDT, and ENS's ENSv2 registrar documentation says more tokens will follow.
The base rate is $8 a year for a name of five or more characters, $160 for four and $640 for three. Longer terms earn a discount on the whole bill, from 12.5% at two years to about 31% for three to five years and about 44% from six years on.
That last step is why six years cost less than five at every name length.
Under ENSv1 an ordinary name cost a flat $5 a year, paid in ETH, so the new grid charges it more for terms up to five years and less for six or more. Changing the grid takes a new price contract installed by the registrar's owner, the ENS DAO.
The prices here come from our own reads of the ENS contracts, and the opening carries no primary link, since ENS's own homepage and the main coin-data pages fail our sourcing rules.
Expiry got stricter too. An expired ENSv2 name stays renewable for 28 days, against 90 under ENSv1. The activation proposal says names carried over from ENSv1 got 62 extra days so they lapse on the same day as before.
Under ENSv2 each name can have its own registry for its subnames, and owners can grant each permission separately. The proposal left later steps to ENS Labs, including moving every name's resolution to ENSv2 and handing its admin roles to the DAO.
How to Get an ENS Wallet Address
A .eth name is rented, unlike some blockchain domains that are sold for a one-time fee. Getting one for your wallet means picking a term and paying for it up front.
ENS's documentation says the ENS App pays in USDC, so have some ready before you start. The registrar contract itself makes you commit first and then wait, whichever app you use.
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Pick a name of at least three characters and check that it's free, keeping in mind that shorter names cost more.
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Approve the payment, a standard token permission that lets the registrar take the price in USDC or DAI from your wallet.
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Send the commitment, a first transaction that records a sealed version of your choice, so someone watching the network can't copy your registration and get in ahead of you.
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Wait at least 60 seconds, then register within a day with the transaction that takes the payment. Registering on Ethereum itself also takes a little ETH for the network fee.
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Make sure the name's address record shows your wallet address, and set it as your primary name if you want apps to display it.
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Renew before the name lapses, which any account can do for any name, and renewals get the same multi-year discounts as new registrations.
How to Buy ENS Safely
Buying ENS can mean a .eth name or the ENS token, and each one comes with its own checks.
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Work out which one you need, since a .eth name is paid for in USDC or DAI and you don't need the ENS token to register or use one.
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Register names through the official ENS App, opened from the link in ENS's own documentation, and treat any site that asks for your seed phrase as a scam.
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Check the token contract before you buy or receive ENS. The ENS token is an ERC-20 on Ethereum at 0xC18360217D8F7Ab5e7c516566761Ea12Ce7F9D72, and a lookalike token can copy its name and ticker.
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Know where ENS stands on Phemex before you look for it there. The ENS/USDT perpetual left Phemex in August 2026, five days after its delisting notice. The ENS/USDT spot pair still traded in early November 2026, but an October 2026 notice ended ENS margin trading and said the spot pair would be delisted at a later date.
Anyone holding ENS in a Phemex spot account should watch for the separate notice that sets that date. Phemex's futures board, linked below, lists other coins. Futures use leverage, and a leveraged position is closed automatically if losses push its margin below a set minimum.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is ENS coin?
ENS is the governance token of the ENS DAO, an ERC-20 on Ethereum. Its holders vote on changes like the switch to ENSv2, and you can own and use a .eth name without it. Its supply and price outlook are in our ENS price prediction.
What is an ENS domain in crypto?
It's a name such as alice.eth that sits in your own wallet as a token, so you can transfer or sell it. Under ENSv2, registering a name hands you a fixed set of roles over it, such as the right to change its resolver.
What happens when an ENS name expires?
Under ENSv2 rules you have four weeks to renew it. After that anyone can register it, but for 21 days they pay a premium that opens near $100 million, halves every day and drops to zero at the end of the window.
Is ENS on Phemex?
Not as a futures contract, since Phemex closed its ENS perpetual in August 2026. The spot pair carries an October 2026 delisting notice that left the final date to a later announcement.
Bottom Line
ENS still does one plain job, putting a readable name in front of a long address, and ENSv2 left that job alone. What the switch changed is the checkout and the time an expired name stays renewable.
A new .eth name is paid for in dollar stablecoins, and the price grid rewards people who commit for years over people who try a name for one. If you plan to keep a name, paying for six years or more at once got the lowest yearly rate at the early-November close.
Whichever name you send to, the address it resolves to is the one that counts.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and is not financial advice. Cryptocurrency trading involves substantial risk. Always do your own research before making investment decisions.
